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Simple Past
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Form
 1 Regular verbs

Verb Ending Example

Ends in a consonant (ex: + -ed I worked at home

work) yesterday
Ends in –e (ex: decide) + -d He decided to take a
taxi
Ends in consonant +y Change –y to –ied She studied law at
(ex: study) university
Ends with a consonant + Double the final They stopped smoking
vowel + consonant (ex: consonant + -ed two years ago.
stop)

But if the final consonant is in an unstressed syllable, we do not double it (Ex:

de’velop ______developed; ‘mention ________mentioned)
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 2 Irregular verbs

Many frequently used verbs are irregular

For example:

• Buy ___bought
• Meet___met
• Cost____cost
• Put_____put
• Know___knew
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Uses

We use the past simple to talk about:

 A completed single action in the past

Example: He met her at the sales conference yesterday.

 A past state that is now finished

Example: I live in Italy in 1999

 A repeated action in the past

Example: We went to the beach every day

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Past time references
1) We use it with expressions that refer to a definite moment or period in the past
Month ____in April
In + Year ______in 2002 On + Day/date _____on
Monday 2nd.
Decade____in the 1999s
Century____in the 20th century

Example: He first set up in business in 1999

2) Other expressions:

We had (have) a meeting last Friday

I visited (visit) the Factory yesterday

He left (leave) the firm five years ago

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Past simple: negative statements

 We use did not/ didn’t + bare infinitive to make negative statements about the
past

Form

+ -
I went by train I didn’t go by train
She saw you She didn’t see you
They had a very good time They didn’t have a very good time
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Past simple: questions

 We make questions about the past with did/didn’t + subject +

bare infinitive

Examples: did you check the figures?

did they have a good time?

didn’t Paul tell you?

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Questions forms
 Questions with to be

We put the subject after the verb

Examples: Was he at the meeting?

Were there any messages for me?

 Questions with a modal verbs (can/would/may/)

We put the subject after the verb

Examples: Can I see you now?

Would you like a coffee?

  Questions words: what, where, when, why and how
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We put question words at the beginning of the sentece before a form of do,be,a
modal or an auxiliary
Question Form of subject
Word do/be/modal/auxi
liary
I prepared some invoices What did you do yesterday?
She went to Beijing Where did she go?
They learned about it on Friday When did they learn about it?

She needs a holiday Why does she need a holiday?

She gets on very well with her How does she get on with her
colleages colleagues?
It cost a lot of money How much did the cost?
machine
I see my suppliers once a How often do you see your suppliers?
month
I can do it next week When can you do it?
He was happy Why was he happy?